Dear Readers,

Today is a special day! My history crush/guardian angel Mashka turns 121 in actual years, but she is eternally 19. In honor of her birthday, I decided to do a special post that links all of my previous posts about her. So if you are new to discovering my history crush, this post will explain it all. But first, I have to share the birthday tribute video that I made. Previously, I had made a long tribute video but the YouTube Nazis took it down. So for her birthday today, I made an even longer one! You can watch it here. But hurry, they may take this one down eventually too. I included a couple of my funny edits in this video. You’ll recognize them when you see them.

If you are wondering where my love for Maria Nikolaevna comes from, you can read these two pieces, but make sure that you read them in order. First, read this one that tells you about how I first discovered who she was. Then read this one, where you can learn about the time she saved my life and thus how I know she’s my guardian angel.

I like music, and so I also made an epic Mashka playlist on my phone. You can see what songs are on it here and also learn about what it is in each song that I relate to her.

In case you are wondering, yes, my office at the college is basically a shrine to her. (Though I haven’t set foot in my office since March 5th, thanks to The Rona). I also sleep with a picture of her next to my bed. And a photo of her is a screensaver on my computer and my phone. Though I do have a lot of photos of her on my author page on Facebook, I also have tons of them on my phone.

So happy birthday to my blue-eyed angel, Mashka. Я тебя люблю.

Sadly, Maria’s remains along with those of her brother have never been buried and have spent the last twelve years in storage. The Russian Orthodox Church refused to accept 25 volumes worth of scientific reports indicating that the remains found in the original grave were the Romanovs, minus Maria and Alexei. And when those remains were discovered in 2007, tests proved conclusively that they were the children of Nicholas and Alexandra. The Russian Orthodox Church rejected all of that documentation and demanded more testing be done. It was, and no surprise, it should the same thing. So then the Church rejected those tests results too…the ones they asked for. In fact, none of the Romanov remains ever received a full Orthodox burial, but at least the others are united. For f–ks sake, why don’t they reunite Maria and Alexei with their parents? It all comes down to petty politics and the Church being upset that they were kept out of the loop when the initial grave was discovered. This is their stubborn, petty revenge. Enough is a enough.

L.H.